When Carr, who is openly gay, asked,
“Is it true you're about to play a gay rugby player?” Rourke
responded: “You're not supposed to say that, okay? Here's the
deal. When I met the rugby player, Gareth Thomas, this is one thing
that he and I talked about. This is something that's really
important. We're doing a movie about a man who plays rugby who is
gay.”

“Oh, I see,” Carr replied. “Sorry,
I shouldn't be so homophobic.”

Thomas first began talking about his
coming out last year. In
an interview with the UK's Daily Mail, the 36-year-old
said he had his first male encounter at the age of 18 and told his
teammates he was gay in 2006, shortly after divorcing his childhood
sweetheart.

“I read the story,” Rourke told
Carr. “It's one of the toughest, hardest sports in the world to
play. They play with no pads. They play … it's a really brutal
sport. To be a man who plays rugby who is gay and to live with that
secret for the amount of years that Gareth had, to perform at the
high level that he performed at, it takes a lot of courage.”